If you want to watch a video on how to find alternatives to suicide, click on the image or click here.
By now you have probably heard the tragic news about the Robin Williams suicide. Like many creative artists, Williams battled the demons of depression.
In the e-tips and affirmations you have been receiving, I have tried to share with you tools and coping strategies that you can successfully treat depression. However, when symptoms do not immediately respond to treatment, the pain of depression can become so overwhelming that we start to think of suicide as the only way to end this pain. This is how Robin Williams must have felt before he made his irreversible decision.
Yet, as one who has struggled with suicide during my own battles with depression, I can say from my own experience and from the experience of my clients, that no matter how hopeless the situation may feel, there is always a reason for hope. This is because the only constant in the universe is change. No state of consciousness, however torturous can endure forever.
If this is true, the challenge then becomes how do we endure the pain of suicidal depression while waiting for it to change? The key is to respond to the pain by increasing our coping strategies and resources.
Here are some tools that I and others have found helpful
- Break the pain into manageable parts − If you feel overwhelmed, try to make it through one day at a time, or one hour or minute at time. If you find yourself catastrophizing about the future, refocus onto the present moment through positive self-talk and constructive action. For example, you might replace the statement “I’ll never get better” with “What self-care strategy (calling a friend, going for a swim, taking an antianxiety medication, etc.) can I choose right now to get me through this period?” Then put the strategy into action.
- Try surrendering to the pain and experience it as a wave washing over you. As the wave makes contact, see if you can ride the wave by focusing on your breath. Breathe through the sensations, breathing in and out while attending to the sound of your breathing. I talk about this technique more in a You Tube video called, “Bearing the unbearable pain.”
- Another coping strategy is to notice the moments when there is a break from the pain. If you can’t locate any respites in the present, then think about some pleasant memory from the past. A single positive memory is a coping resource and has the same impact as something that occurs right now. This is because the brain cannot tell the difference between what is real and what it imagines.
- Finally, stay in touch with others, as they are your lifeline to healing. Every single person in my support group who was desperately suicidal and reached out to others is alive today.
A well known cliche says − “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” The truth of this was brought home to me when I learned about a person who had jumped from the Golden Gate bridge and survived. He is quoted as saying, “As I passed the guard rail, I suddenly realized that everything that I thought was unfixable was in reality fixable.” Fortunately, he survived and was given the opportunity to repair his life. Others have been less fortunate.
I would like to end this article with a personal message for anyone who may be suicidal or who knows someone who is suicidal.
If you are on the edge of the abyss, don’t jump.
If you are going through hell, don’t stop.
As long as you are breathing, there is hope.
I hope that this information has been helpful, and remember what they say in AA: “Don’t give up five minutes before the miracle!”
Sincerely,
Douglas Bloch, M.A.
https://healingfromdepression.com
If you would like to watch a video about how I coped with suicidal thoughts, click the image below or click here.
